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Webb finds molecule only made by living things in another world (mashable.com)

submitted 1 year ago by L4s to c/technology

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Webb finds molecule only made by living things in another world::undefined

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[–] [email protected] 92 points 1 year ago (14 children)

Only a 1 sigma confirmation at the moment so needs to be thoroughly reinvestigated

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (13 children)

What does 1 sigma mean?

[–] ShittyBeatlesFCPres 66 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Sigma is basically a representation of certainty that your result isn’t a statistical fluke. It comes from standard deviation in statistics but 1 sigma is 68% certain. 2 sigma is 95%. 3 sigma is 99.7%.

By convention, astronomy uses 3 sigma for “significance,” meaning you almost definitely found something. Particle physics, since it’s usually done in controlled experiments, usually requires 5 sigma (99.99994%).